Utah Valley State College will host its second annual Mathematics Awareness Week this week in preparation for annual nationwide Mathematics Awareness Month in April.
According to a new release, the week is designed to promote awareness among faculty and students of the importance and role of mathematics in everyday life.
"It's something we've wanted to do for a long time," said Kathryn Van Wagoner, manager of Math Tutorial Services at UVSC. "Math Awareness Week is held on college campuses across the country."
UVSC's Math Awareness Week will feature keynote speaker Roland Steadham, chief meteorologist at KUTV. He will speak Tuesday on "Boots? Or Flip Flops? Discovering the Wacky World of TV Weather Forecasting and its Connection to Math."
The week will also feature a power-testing workshop, which will teach success strategies for math tests, a factoring bee for those who have never taken calculus, a speed chess tournament, puzzles, games and a speed Sudoku competition. Participants in the various competitions will compete for UVSC Bookstore gift certificates, as well as other prizes.
The theme for this year's Mathematics Awareness Month is "Mathematics and the Brain," a theme announced by the American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.
According to mathaware.org, the month had its beginnings in 1986 with Mathematics Awareness Week. The week was inspired by U.S. President Ronald Reagan's declaration of mathematics application as indispensable in many business and government fields. Reagan encouraged Americans to be aware of the importance of mathematic applications in their daily lives.
"There's a lot more to math than just algebra," Van Wagoner said.
Activities will be all week. Stop by the UVSC campus or contact the UVSC mathematics department for more information.
| Math Week Info |
| When: March 19-23 Keynote Speaker: Tuesday, 12-12:50 p.m., UVSC Centre Stage Factoring Bee: Wednesday, 12-12:50, LA 231 Speed Sudoku: Thursday, 12-12:50, LA 231 Where: UVSC, Liberal Arts building and UVSC Centre Stage |
Copyright Brigham Young University 19 Mar 2007
